Page:Augusta Seaman--Jacqueline of the carrier pigeons.djvu/293

Rh, the master would have boxed my ears and kept me in from play for three days to  write my conjugations! What this doughty Spaniard wished to remark was probably—‘Farewell miserable town! Thou art abandoned because of the water, and not because of the strength of thy resistance!’ Oh, ho! noble Valdez, thy Latin is as poor as thy courage! I must keep this carefully to hand to Admiral Boisot.”

But the dawn was already breaking, and Gysbert hurried back to Lammen, carrying  with him as a souvenir, the iron pot of hodge-podge. Early that morning there was to be a combined assault on the fort by the Admiral’s fleet and the citizens of the town. The day before, Boisot had despatched the last pigeon into the city, urging the starving  populace to aid him in one last desperate attack. With the first streaks of daylight all was in readiness, and the Admiral prepared  to push his fleet under the very guns of cannon-bristling Lammen. But to his great